Fast-track service for cancer patients

The Acute Oncology Service will deliver care to patients who might need emergency review or admission to hospital because of their cancer or their treatment’s side effects.

It will also support the work of other departments in the Trust’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).

Emma Steele and Di Waldron are the Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists leading the new service.

Emma said: “The Acute Oncology Service at QEHB will provide an emergency response service for patients with complications of cancer and its treatment who need urgent review or admission to hospital and we are very grateful to Macmillan Cancer Support for funding it for the first three years.

“We will be working closely with the hospital’s Emergency Department and the plan is that people who need urgent review and admission to hospital as a result of their cancer, suspected cancer, or its treatment will be seen by a cancer specialist as soon as possible within 24 hours.

“We will also be working with departments across the hospital to make sure that anyone who has a cancer diagnosis or suspected cancer but is admitted to hospital for another reason is assessed by the Acute Oncology team.

“It is going to be a new way of working for the hospital and will mean that we are much more joined-up in the way that we care for people with cancer.”

Jo Judges, Macmillan Development Manager said: “Cancer is the toughest thing that most of us will have to fight so it is vital that cancer patients are given the right support at the right time and are seen as a whole person rather than a set of symptoms.

“This new service will make things easier for the medical and nursing staff at the hospital as well as the patients.”